A cavity having an enamel coating, a cooking appliance comprising such a cavity and a method for manufacturing such a cavity

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a cavity ( 4 ) for a cooking appliance ( 2 ), in particular an oven, wherein the cavity ( 4 ) comprises—cavity walls ( 8   a,    8   b,    8   c,    8   d ) defining a cooking chamber ( 6 ) for cooking foodstuff, and—a central opening for placing foodstuff into the cooking chamber ( 6 ), characterised in that—at least one surface of at least one of the cavity walls ( 8   a,    8   b,    8   c,    8   d ) is coated with a layer ( 10 ) comprising aluminium, wherein said layer ( 10 ) further comprises a first coating ( 14 ) being made of a enamel having a low softening point.

The present invention relates to a cavity for a cooking appliance, in particular an oven. Further, the present invention relates to such cooking appliance and a method of manufacturing a cavity for such cooking appliance.

Usually, the standard material used for welded components of cooking appliances, in particular for welded oven cavities, is low carbon steel that is coated with a so-called pyro or vitreous enamel that essentially consists of melted and fused glass powder. In order to manufacture such components, high burning temperatures from about 820 to 840° C. are needed to apply the coating.

The document DE 10 2014 201 639 A1 shows an oven cavity having cavity walls, wherein the cavity walls are coated with materials which determine a surface function of the cavity walls.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a cavity and/or a cooking appliance comprising such cavity and a method of manufacturing such a cavity and/or cooking appliance having easy to clean properties and require less energy.

These and other problems are solved by the subject matter of the attached independent claims.

The first object of the invention is achieved by a cavity according to claim 1. A cavity for a cooking appliance, in particular an oven, comprises cavity walls defining a cooking chamber for cooking foodstuff, and a central opening for placing foodstuff into the cooking chamber. According to the cavity according to the present invention, at least one surface of at least one of the cavity walls is coated with a layer comprising aluminium. Said layer further comprises a first coating being made of an enamel having a low softening point.

In other words: The cavity walls are at least partially aluminised and/or comprise an aluminium layer. In principal, an inner and an outer surface of the cavity walls may be provided with a layer comprising aluminium completely or at least partially. The first coating is provided at least on these surface parts of the cavity walls, where the aluminium layer is present.

According to the present invention, however, the “inner surface” of a cavity wall is the surface directed to the heated or heatable cooking chamber defined by said cavity walls. Accordingly, an “outer surface” of a cavity wall is the surface facing away from said cooking chamber.

The cavity comprises cavity walls, which form a cooking chamber between them, into which foodstuff may be placed to be cooked or baked. For this purpose, the cooking chamber is defined by the cavity walls, usually comprising a left and a right side wall, a bottom wall and an upper wall, a rear wall and a front wall, whereby one of the cavity walls, usually the front wall comprises a central opening for placing the foodstuff into the cooking chamber. The central opening may be closed or opened, respectively, by a door. The person skilled in the art also knows other configurations of such cavity.

The cavity may comprise further components that are provided to be attached to the cavity walls, for example backing trays or grids. Even these further components may have a comparable structure to the cavity walls, thus at least one surface of such accessory components may be coated with a layer comprising aluminium, wherein said layer further comprises a coating being made of a enamel having a low softening point.

The components of the cavity, thus the cavity walls and/or further accessory components, may be integrally formed or may comprise several parts that are provided to be joined together to form a shaped structure, such as the heatable oven cavity, its frontframe or any component thereof.

The idea of the present invention is to use cavity walls made of a base material that is aluminized or at least partially coated with an aluminum layer. The aluminum layer or aluminized parts of the cavity walls are further enameled with an enamel having a low softening point, respectively a low glass transition temperature, in particular an aluminium enamel. The softening point is defined as a temperature, respectively a temperature range, at which the material, e.g. the enamel turns from its hard and relatively brittle state into a molten or rubber-like state when temperature is increased. Therefore an enamel having a low softening point, a so-called “low-temperature enamel”, can be applied to the surface of the cavity walls at lower burning temperatures.

In particular, the first coating is an enamel having a softening point between 450° C. and 560° C. As the burning temperature is therefore strongly reduced in comparison to enamels used in the prior art for cavities, e.g. pyro or vitreous enamel that consists of melted and fused glass powder that require firing at high temperatures from about 820 to 840° C., energy required for coating the cavity walls is significantly reduced.

It is generally advantageous, if the first coating is a nonstick and easy to clean enamel. In a preferred embodiment, the first coating, respectively enamel comprises aluminium, in particular aluminium oxide. In this case, the bonding and the adhesion of the first coating, namely the aluminium enamel, to the surface of at least one of the cavity walls that is coated with a layer comprising aluminium, is strongly increased.

In a further preferred embodiment, the first coating comprises polytetrafluoroethylene in order to further simplify the cleaning of the cavity. As the first coating respectively the enamel does not require high burning temperatures during the manufacturing process, the polytetrafluoroethylene is not destroyed.

The cavity walls can be made of any sheet steel, thus a material comprising mainly iron and carbon that is suitable to form three-dimensionally shaped components of a cooking appliance. In particular, the cavity walls are made of low carbon sheet steel, thus the base material of the cavity walls is low carbon steel. At least one surface of the cavity walls is coated with the aluminium layer, respectively aluminised. In other words: An aluminised steel sheet is used for the cavity walls.

The layer preferably comprises an aluminium oxide layer and an intermetallic layer comprising aluminium and iron. Therefore the basic structure of the cavity walls is a thin aluminium oxide layer outside, an intermetallic layer, e.g. a mix of aluminium, silicon and iron, and finally a steel core. The aluminium oxide layer may further protect the cavity walls against corrosion.

Preferably, the surface of the at least one of the cavity walls that is coated with an aluminium layer or aluminized and that is further provided with a first coating is an inner surface of the cavity walls. Such a coating respectively an enamel on the inner surface of the cavity which comes into contact with the foodstuff, especially the bottom wall of the cavity, has the advantage that the cooking chamber can be cleaned in an easy and user-friendly way.

In an advantageous embodiment, an outer surface of at least one of the cavity walls, in particular all cavity walls, comprises a second coating. The second coating may be applied, e.g. spraypainted, on the outside of the cavity selectively, e.g. in areas near heating elements, or the outside of a cavity wall may be entirely coated with the second coating. Such a coating on the outer surface reduces heat emission to the outside from the inside of the cavity. Even further components that are attached to the cavity walls may comprise a second coating on their outer side.

Preferably, the second coating comprises a reflective material having a low emissivity. The term “emissivity” as used herein, preferably refers to the effectiveness of a surface and/or of its material in emitting energy as thermal radiation. The term “low emissivity” as used herein, refers to an emissivity of the second coating, particularly the reflective material that is about 0.2 to 0.3. Such a coating reflects the heat that radiates from the heated oven cavity so that the energy consumption of the oven during its cooking operation is reduced.

The second coating preferably comprises aluminium, for example in form of small aluminium particles. Such small particles have a low emissivity even when they are oxidized particles. An aluminium coating on the outer surface of the cavity has the additional advantage that it protects the cavity walls from corrosion.

A thickness of the layer comprising aluminium is in particular between 15 and 25 μm and/or a thickness of the first coating is in particular between 30 and 60 μm and/or a thickness of the second coating is in particular between 30 and 60 μm.

The second object of the invention is achieved by a cooking appliance according to claim 12.

Such a cooking appliance, in particular an oven comprises a heatable cavity, heating elements for heating said cavity, and a door for closing and opening the cavity, in particular for closing and opening a central opening of the cavity, wherein the heatable cavity is a cavity according to any one of the claims 1 to 11.

For example, a cooking appliance and/or the cavity according to the present invention is a cooking and/or baking device for cooking and/or baking of foodstuff. Such cooking appliance, preferably a cooking and/or baking device, may particularly be a cooking appliance selected from the group comprising an oven, baking oven, microwave, steam-oven, and steam-cooker.

The third object of the invention is achieved by a method of manufacturing a cavity for a cooking appliance, in particular an oven, according to claim 13.

Such method of manufacturing a cavity for a cooking appliance, in particular an oven, comprises at least the following steps: At least one cavity wall having at least one surface that is coated with a layer comprising aluminium is provided in a first step. In a second step, the cavity is provided by joining together the cavity walls together by laser welding. Even further components of the cavity, such as its frontframe or housing parts that surround the cavity walls are joined together to each other and/or to the cavity walls by laser welding.

Cavity walls having a surface that is coated with a layer comprising aluminium, for example an aluminized sheet steel, could not have been used in the past. In previous welding concepts, ohmic resistance welding has been used for connecting the cavity walls and if necessary further components. Thereby the surface structure of the cavity walls and thus the coating respectively the layer comprising aluminium would be destroyed as the heat affected zone is large. In this case, applying a coating to the cavity wall afterwards is not possible, respectively a proper enamel could not be created on such damaged surfaces. Therefore only steel as base material for the cavity walls without any coating or enamel was used so far.

According to the method according to the present invention, the main difference and an important advantage is to use laser welding so that the welding process can be carried out although at least one surface of at least one of the cavity walls is provided with a layer comprising aluminium. This is due to the fact that the material is affected in a lesser extent by using laser welding, so that the heat input into the material is much smaller. Therefore the coating, respectively the aluminium layer is not damaged or destroyed during the welding process. Furthermore the weld can be created more precisely and with smaller dimension by using laser welding.

In particular, the surface of the cavity wall that comprises the aluminium layer is preferably an inner surface of the cavity and the laser is welding the cavity walls from an outer side. The laser welding can be controlled in such a way that the temperature of the surface of at least the inner surface of the cavity walls can be effectively kept at a low temperature at which the aluminium coating or layer that faces the inside of the cavity is not damaged to any degree that would impair its subsequent coating with the first coating. As the penetration depth of the laser beam during the welding process is smaller than a thickness of the cavity wall and/or further components that are welded to the cavity wall, the inner surface and therefore the layer comprising aluminium is not influenced.

The first coating being made of an enamel having a low softening point is preferably applied to said layer after the components of the cavity have been welded together by means of a laser. As the aluminium layer is not damaged during the welding process, the first coating can be applied to the inner surface of the cavity walls without any problems or enamel defects.

In a preferred embodiment, the second coating may be provided on an outer surface of the cavity walls, wherein the second coating in particular comprises a reflective material, for example aluminium. In particular, the second coating may be provided on an outer surface of a further component that has been welded to the cavity walls. The second coating might be applied to the outer surface for example by wet spraying process.

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the drawings, in which

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of a cooking appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention, and

FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a cavity wall in detail, and

FIG. 3 illustrates a method for providing a cavity by use of laser welding.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of a cooking appliance 2, exemplary an oven. Such cooking appliance 2 comprises a heatable cavity 4 according to the present invention. The cavity 4 comprises cavity walls which define a cooking chamber 6 into which foodstuff may be placed for cooking or baking. The cooking chamber 6 is defined by the cavity walls, usually comprising a left and a right side wall, 8 a and 8 b, respectively, a bottom wall 8 c and an upper wall 8 d and a rear wall and a front wall, which are not shown in FIG. 1. One of the cavity walls, usually the front wall comprises a central opening for placing the foodstuff into the cooking chamber 6. The central opening may be closed or opened by a door that may be a part of the front wall. The cooking appliance 2 usually further comprises also heating elements (not shown in FIG. 1) for heating the cooking chamber 6 and therefore heating food that has been placed therein to be cooked. Such heating elements may be disposed at one of the cavity walls.

FIG. 2 illustrates a part of a cavity 4 according to the present invention, exemplary a part of the lower cavity wall 8 c according to FIG. 1 in detail for improved illustration of the structure of the cavity walls of the cavity 4. The cavity walls 8 a, 8 b, 8 c and 8 d are made of low carbon steel and are entirely coated with a layer 10 that comprises aluminium. In other words:

An aluminized steel sheet is used as a base material for the cavity walls. Said aluminium layer 10 comprises two aluminium layers having different composition, namely an aluminium oxide layer 10 a on the outer side of the cavity wall 8 c and an intermetallic layer 10 b, e.g. a mix of iron and aluminium between the aluminium oxide layer 10 a and the steel core 12. The aluminium layer 10 shows a thickness of about 15 to 25 μm. According to FIG. 2, both, an inner surface, thus the surface facing towards the cooking chamber 6, and an outer surface, thus the surface facing away from the cooking chamber, of the cavity wall 8 c is coated with a layer of aluminium 10.

The inner surface of the cavity wall 8 c, in particular the aluminium layer 10 is coated with a first coating 14 that is an enamel having a low softening point. The first coating 14 has a softening point below 560° C. and comprises aluminium. As the first coating 14 is applied to the aluminium layer 10, respectively the aluminium oxide layer 10 a, the bonding and adhesion of the first coating is increased. Furthermore, according to the low softening point, the burning temperatures that are required for applying the enamel to the cavity walls can be significantly reduced. Therefore, additionally or instead of an enamel comprising aluminium, a first coating 14 comprising polytetrafluoroethylene that shows in particular low adhesion of food particles and easy to clean properties may be used. The first coating 14 shows a thickness of about 30 to 60 μm.

The outer surface of the cavity walls, exemplary cavity wall 8 c, is provided with a second coating 16 that comprises a reflective material having a low emissivity. As even the second coating 16 comprises aluminium, the bonding between the aluminium layer 10 of the cavity wall 8 c and the second coating 16 is increased. The second coating 16 reflects the heat that radiates from the heated oven cavity 4 so that the energy consumption of the cooking appliance 2, in particular an oven, during its cooking operation is reduced. A further important advantage is that the second coating 16 on the outer surface of the cavity wall protects the latter against corrosion. The second coating 16 shows a thickness of about 30 to 60 μm.

Although the structure and the coatings 14, 16 are described exemplary for bottom cavity wall 8 c, each of the other cavity walls may made of aluminized sheet steel and may comprise a first coating 14 and/or a second coating 16 section by section or in particular on their entire surface. If the cavity comprises further components, they may have a comparable structure to the cavity walls, thus a steel core, at least one aluminium layer and a first and/or second coating.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method for providing a cavity 4 for a cooking appliance 2, exemplary an oven, by use of laser welding. Firstly the cavity wall, un upper cavity wall 8 d is exemplary shown, made of aluminized steel sheet, respectively having an aluminium layer 10 on both sides, namely on its inner surface and its outer surface, is provided. In a following step, the cavity walls 8 a, 8 b, 8 c, 8 d are joined together by laser welding (not shown). Even further components, exemplary a housing part 18 is joined to the cavity walls, exemplary shown for the cavity wall 8 d.

The laser 20 for welding the components is positioned at an outer side of the cavity 4, thus on the side that faces away from the cooking chamber 6, in order to weld the cavity parts, thus the cavity wall 8 d and the housing part 18 from an outer side. As can be seen in FIG. 3, the penetration length of the laser and the length of the weld 22 is smaller than the thickness of the cavity wall 8 d and the housing part 18 so that the inner side of the cavity wall 8 d and therefore the aluminium layer 10 is not damaged during the welding process.

In a subsequent step, a first coating 14 is applied at least to the surface that comprises the aluminium layer 10 and that has not been destroyed during the laser welding process. The first coating 14 is an enamel having a low softening point and comprises aluminium in order to achieve a strong bonding and adhesion to the surface of the cavity wall 8 d. The first coating 14 is provided on the inner surface of the cavity 4. The first coating 14 is also applied partially to an inner surface of the housing part 18 that has been welded to the cavity wall 8 d. The second coating 16 may be applied to the cavity wall 8 d and/or afterwards to an outer surface of the housing part 18.

The above mentioned explanations described exemplary for upper cavity wall 8 d are also valid for the further cavity walls 8 a, 8 b, 8 c.

Although an illustrative embodiment of the present invention has been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to that precise embodiment, and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

-   2 cooking appliance -   4 cavity -   6 cooking chamber -   8 a left cavity wall -   8 b right cavity wall -   8 c bottom cavity wall -   8 d upper cavity wall -   10 layer comprising aluminium -   10 a aluminium oxide layer -   10 b intermetallic layer -   12 steel core -   14 first coating -   16 second coating -   18 housing part -   20 laser -   22 weld 

1. A cavity for an oven, wherein the cavity comprises: cavity walls defining a cooking chamber for cooking foodstuff, and a central opening for placing foodstuff into the cooking chamber, wherein at least one surface of at least one of the cavity walls is coated with a layer comprising aluminum, wherein said layer further comprises a first coating being made of an enamel having a low softening point.
 2. The cavity according to claim 1, wherein the first coating is an enamel having a softening point between 450 and 560° C.
 3. The cavity according to claim 1, wherein the first coating comprises aluminum.
 4. The cavity according to claim 1, wherein the first coating comprises polytetrafluoroethylene.
 5. The cavity according to claim 1, wherein the cavity walls are made of low carbon sheet steel.
 6. The cavity according to claim 1, wherein the layer comprises an aluminum oxide layer and an intermetallic layer comprising aluminum and iron.
 7. The cavity according to claim 1, wherein said at least one surface of the at least one of the cavity walls is an inner surface of the respective cavity walk.
 8. The cavity according to claim 1, wherein an outer surface of at least one of the cavity walls comprises a second coating.
 9. The cavity according to claim 8, wherein the second coating comprises a reflective material having a low emissivity.
 10. The cavity according to claim 8, wherein the second coating comprises aluminum.
 11. The cavity according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of the layer comprising aluminum is between 15 and 25 μm and/or a thickness of the first coating is between/about 30 and 60 μm and/or a thickness of the second coating is between 30 and 60 μm.
 12. An oven, comprising: a heatable cavity comprising the cavity according to claim 1, heating elements for heating said cavity, and a door for closing a central opening of the cavity.
 13. A method for manufacturing a cavity for an oven, comprising at least the following steps: providing at least one cavity wall having at least one surface that is coated with a layer comprising aluminum, providing the cavity by joining together the cavity walls and further components by means of laser welding.
 14. A method according to claim 13, wherein said surface is an inner surface of the cavity and the laser-welding of the cavity walls is from outer sides thereof.
 15. A method according to claim 13, wherein a first coating being made of a enamel having a low softening point is applied to said layer after the components of the cavity have been welded together by laser welding. 